Kidney structural abnormalities are amongst the leading causes of pediatric chronic kidney disease, producing significant morbidity and mortality. Understanding how different kidney lineages develop and interact is critical for making an impact on structural kidney disease. While most of the field has focused on ureteric, nephrogenic and stromal lineages, few have interrogated the role of the vasculature in the process of kidney development, except as it relates to the glomerulus. Moreover, the origin of the kidney vasculature has been debated to come from either the nephrogenic mesenchyme (within the kidney) or invading vessels. Our preliminary data strongly suggests that the renal cortical stroma gives rise to a significant percentage of the endothelium in the kidney that is critical for kidney development. In transgenic mice, co-expression of stromal and endothelial markers was detected in subsets of kidney cells at different embryonic stages by fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) and immunofluorescence. FACS analysis of permanently tagged renal cortical stromal cells showed a significant proportion of the surviving cells were now endothelial cells in post-natal kidneys. Immunofluorescence revealed lineage tagged renal stromal-derived endothelial cells gave rise to a significant portion of the peritubular capillary network, but not glomerular capillaries. Functionally, embryonic stroma-positive cells differentiated into tubular networks that expressed endothelial markers in an in vitro endothelial tubulogenesis assay and endocytosed Acetylated Low density lipoprotein (a functional endothelial cell assay). To test whether renal stroma gives rise to renal endothelium in vivo, Flk1 (critical for endothelial development) was conditionally deleted in the renal stroma (Flk1ST-/- mice). Flk1ST-/- mice had a dramatic congenital kidney defect and dilated peritubular capillaries while containing normal-appearing glomerular capillaries. An apparent reduction in ureteric branching and nephron formation was also observed. Thus, the hypothesis is that a subset of renal cortical stromal cells are precursors to many of the renal peritubular endothelial cells and that this endothelial cell population is necessary for normal patterning of other lineages in the kidney. To test this hypothesis, the following aims are proposed: Aim 1: To determine the functional potential of the renal cortical stroma to develop into endothelium. Foxd1 stroma will be isolated by FACS and subjected to in vitro conditions to drive endothelial cell differentiation. Aim 2: Determine the fate of Foxd1/Flk1 cells and how deletion of these cells affects vascular development. A comprehensive histological, structural, and functional analysis of the endothelium and vasculature will be performed. Aim 3: To investigate the role of the FoxD1- derived endothelium in formation of the kidney. A thorough histological, structural and physiological assessment of the renal lineages of the Flk1ST-/- mice will be performed. These studies will provide new insights into the origins of renal endothelium and their contribution to renal development. Manipulation of this novel progenitor pool may therapeutically impact vascular related congenital kidney abnormalities and diseases.